Travel and Entertainment Expenses

Travel Advance

A travel advance is used to provide an employee with funds to pay for estimated future travel expenses. (Actual travel expenses known in advance of travel, such as airfare and most conference fees, should be submitted for payment to vendor or reimbursement to you using a completed and approved Check Requisition Form.) For a travel advance, funds are taken from the appropriate University account and issued in the form of a check payable to the employee. Travel advances may be issued only to active University employees and will not be issued to an employee who has a travel advance outstanding. For more information regarding travel advances, see the University’s Business & Travel Expense Policy located at http://www.seattleu.edu/policies and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Publication 535, Business Expenses at http://www.irs.gov/publications/p535.

To ensure efficient processing of your advance, please adhere to the following key policies:

Submit Travel Advance Request Form a minimum of five (5) business days prior to the first day of travel for which you are requesting the advance.

Travel advances will not be released any earlier than five (5) business days prior to travel.

As stipulated by the IRS, you must give documentary evidence of your business expenses. This evidence should be substantiated by original itemized receipts which you shall attach to your travel advance reconciliation. Any advance that is not properly reconciled to your actual expenditures on a timely basis will be included as income to you on your annual Form W-2. These funds would then be subject to income tax withholding, social security, Medicare, and federal unemployment taxes.

Travel advances must be reconciled to actual expenditures within ten (10) business days following the last day of travel to mitigate potential taxation of the advance. Please submit a completed and approved Travel Expense Report Form to the Accounts Payable department in 1218 East Cherry Building within ten (10) business days.

Instructions For Completing Travel Expense Report

Destination and purpose of travel: Date departed and returned. (These items are self-explanatory.)

Detail of Travel Expenses: Refer to the Schedule of Allowable Costs for Travel for information on allowable costs and/or required supporting documentation. Provide the daily total expended for each category of expense.

Business entertainment expense documentation: The name of the establishment and city where it occurred, date(s), name of person(s) entertained, and business purpose.

Total expense: Carry totals to the far right, and down to total expenses.

Budget number to be charged: Indicate fund and department numbers to be charged with travel expenditure. Leave "Acct" field blank. (This is for accounting use only.)

Schedule of Allowable Costs for Travel

Expenditure

Current Rate

Supporting Documentation

Air Fare

Actual cost of less than first class ticket

Copy of e-ticket or paper airline ticket

Hotel

Actual reasonable cost less any personal expenses

Copy of hotel bill

Meals

Per Diem (no receipts required) $35.00. Per Diem is not allowed if the meals were provided by the workshop. If partial meals are provided, use the below meal rates to reduce the per diem claim.
Breakfast $8.00, Lunch $10.00, Dinner $17.00 (total not to exceed $35.00)

Choose one of the two methods for reimbursement.
1) Receipts for the actual meal expenses
OR
2) Per diem of $35.00 each day.

Auto Rental

Must be authorized by area vice president. Limited to compact, when available.

Copy of agreement and payment receipts

Automobile

Mileage at 57.5 cents per mile - not to exceed cost of other means (i.e, airfare, taxi, auto rental).

Hard copy of electronic map showing miles from point to point; log of number of miles driven